Mercy For Animals celebrated its 23rd anniversary with a celebrity-studded red carpet on Friday, September 16th.
The Blast was on the red carpet for the Mercy For Animals Gala to talk to the stars about veganism and the importance of ditching animal products for au-natural products.
The Blast Attended The Mercy For Animals Gala
“Succession” star James Cromwell was being honored with the “Hope Award” at the evening’s gala for his animal rights activism and continued fight to make change in US food system
The Blast’s reporter, Madison Conklin, spoke to Cromwell about his award and activism.
“What is your HOPE for the future of the food system,” she asked Cromwell.
“Well, it’s not a hope, because it has to happen. It’s an imperative. The food system has got to change radically right away,” he adamantly said. “The reason I say that is all these issues are intersectional, they cross over into each other. You know, social justice, environmental justice, health justice, women’s issue, gay issues. All those issues are all in the same, they’re part of the same fabric.”
Cromwell Says The Food System Needs To Change Radically & NOW!
He explained too many people are making excuses NOT to try being vegan.
“The vegan issue about becoming vegan, both because it’s better for your body, better for the environment and also a way to stop the inordinate cruelty that exists in that system can actually be accomplished if everybody would embrace veganism,” Cromwell told The Blast. “If they would instead of saying ‘Oh I couldn’t possibly do that, I just love my cheese so much. Oh yes, I only eat fish you know.’ If they would stop with the bullshit and just say, ‘Let me do it one day a week.’ See how you feel at the end of the week and say, ‘Oh, okay. Maybe I’ll try two days.’”
Award Honorees James Cromwell & Chef Babette Davis
Cromwell became vegan in 1995 following his starring role in the movie, “Babe.” He’s been fighting for animal rights for nearly 30 years.
In an interview with VICE, Cromwell explained how the movie inspired his veganism.
“The film is about what we do to each other by pigeonholing us and other people into certain categories that protect our own sense of entitlement and position and power. The little pig questions that and finds a receptive consciousness in Farmer Hoggett,” he explained in the 2015 interview.
While speaking to Cromwell at the Mercy For Animals gala, he urged people to try veganism “at your own pace.”
“Do it at your own pace. Do it with your own intentionality, so that you don’t feel deprived, so you don’t feel obligated,” he noted. “So, that it’s something that happens naturally, because you feel better, you think better, you relate better, cause that’s what’s important and that has to happen tonight.”
Cromwell Warns Food System Protests Could Soon Become Illegal
Cromwell warned there is legislation that could be passed which would make it illegal to protest against the food system.
“They’re going to make protests against the food system illegal. It’s the next thing up after Thomas gets away with everything else. I know that they’re going to do that and they’re going to arrest us, and they’re going to put you in jail,” he stated before adding, “having been in jail and prison, it’s not a nice feeling. So, you have to say to yourself, ‘Okay, but I’m willing to put myself in that position, because if I don’t get in that position nothing will change.’”
When asked if he believes if he believes there will be a future world where NO animal cruelty or slaughtering will occur, Cromwell said, “From your mouth to God’s ear. That depends on us. Of course, it’s doable.”
“You know… for so many tens of thousands of years we lived in harmony and balance and in relationship to the whole. This was all us. The tree was us, the ground was us, the air was us, and we respected it and venerated it and celebrated it and listened to it, now we have cut ourselves off from the spirit,” Cromwell said. “We have to reattach ourselves to the spirit. The spirit that exists in us, that exists in consciousness, exists everywhere and forms everything. And if we do this, we can turn this around. But, only if we do that, only if we access the heart. You cannot solve a problem using the same mind that created the problem in the first place.”